Name:	architect -	Reply
Subject:	Thank you Chief Justice Roberts
Date:	11/21/2018 7:17:52 PM

for using very gentle legalese language to tell Donald J. Trump he is full of crap!!

Name:	lucky67 -	Reply
Subject:	Thank you Chief Justice Roberts
Date:	11/22/2018 9:58:07 AM

guess we now know SOROS money has penetrated to  SCOTUS

Name:	MAJ USA RET -	Reply
Subject:	not a good idea on his part
Date:	11/22/2018 10:43:48 AM

I am surprised by the Chief Justice making any statement… especially after Justice Ginsburg was chastised by the media for her political observations.  Perhaps Justice Roberts is disconcerted that his “swing vote” status is marginalized by the presence of a (newly established) majority of Constitutionalists rather than a more even split with the judicial activist justices.  Future cases are now more likely to be adjudicated on compliance with the Constitution rather that outside social/political pressure. His power is diluted.

Justice Roberts should take his cue from the public reticence of Justice Kagan who confines her judicial compassion to the chambers of the Supreme Court. Having not done so… he will now be submitted to yet another round of media flogging (remember his amazing and confusing swing vote which sustained Obama’s “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”).

Name:	architect -	Reply
Subject:	Happy Thanksgiving Maj!...Serious question...
Date:	11/22/2018 4:47:24 PM (updated 11/22/2018 4:49:56 PM)

Did you have similar misgivings a few years ago when Justice Roberts expressed critical remarks about barack Obama after Obama publicly disagreed with the Citizens United decision?

If you think it was unwise for Roberts to say what he did, do you think it was wise for President Trump to have cast the first stone by  condemning the actions of the constitutional co-equal branch of government which is supposed to be removed from ''politics''?  What about Obama's remarks related to Citizens United?  Were they somehow ''different'' from or less acceptable than Trump's statement.

Does the fact that Obama had no comeback to Roberts' criticism while Trump is still going off on Roberts in any way change the conversation or your opinion?

I do not often agree with your comments but they do make it obvious that you are more thoughtful and perhaps less influenced by political bias in forming your opinion and more respectful of differing opinions than most of this forum, and l would like have more comment from you on what is and is not appropriate as concerns relations between the separate branches of the government, both in general and from this administration in particular.

Name:	MAJ USA RET -	Reply
Subject:	a view from the weeds
Date:	11/22/2018 7:16:39 PM

Architect – “Did you have similar misgivings a few years ago when Justice Roberts expressed critical remarks about Barack Obama after Obama publicly disagreed with the Citizens United decision?”   - - I am remiss.  I don’t recall that.  (Maybe I was in Iraq when that went down.) To be frank, I probably would have agreed with Justice Robert’s position… but, would have been concerned that he would inappropriately speak out of court… unless, of course, it was by way of publishing the majority and dissenting opinions of the court.

Architect – “…do you think it was wise for President Trump to have cast the first stone by condemning the actions of the constitutional co-equal branch of government which is supposed to be removed from ''politics''?  - - The media has given President Trump little opportunity to express himself unedited or taken out of context.  The President of the United States IS a political creature.  Additionally, his words are true about the 9^th District Court.  However, I am personally disturbed at his syntax.  I think he should jot down his tweets and give them to someone (e.g. Kellyanne Conway) for editing before hitting the send button.  I don’t disagree with his tweets – I do disagree with his tone.  (I also do not know how Twitter works.)

Architect – “…what is and is not appropriate as concerns relations between the separate branches of the government…?” - - The Supreme Court justices and their staff should IGNORE the President specifically and all politics generally.   They speak when they adjudicate. And, that is the definitive message to the other two branches of government. 

The sole mission of the Supreme Court is to decide constitutionality.  If an appeal, on its merits complies with the Constitution, the Supreme Court rules in favor of the law or action in question.  If the appeal is found to have violated the Constitution, the Supreme Court invalidates the law or action.  If a law or action before the Supreme Court is not covered in the Constitution… “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people” [Tenth Amendment]... the Supreme Court sends the appeal back to the states… or refuses to hear it.

By the way, had Roberts not framed ObamaCare as a “tax”, it would have been nullified and sent back to the states per the Tenth Amendment… as would Roe v Wade in the constitutionalist court we have now.  Both of those could (should) only survive as Amendments ratified by the states.  Both of them were after surviving the Supreme Court, political acts of judicial activism.  Remember, as I pointed out elsewhere, the Supreme Court is a democracy (majority rules) and, barring true legislation by Congress, can get away with acts of tyranny.

- LMF Curmudgeon

Name:	GoneFishin -	Reply
Subject:	don't smoke the weeds
Date:	11/23/2018 12:07:04 AM

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Maj...."The media has given President Trump little opportunity to express himself unedited or taken out of context."

Maybe, just maybe, if he told the truth the media would provide him with that opportunity you speak of. He just speaks or tweets( I, like you, do not tweet) without thinking of the ramifications and has an 8th grade mentality of prolonging the argument just to try and win. As President, he should be able to be above a street fight "win at all cost" approach to issues. He defends Ivanka and her use of private email by referencing Hillary. Hilary was wrong and Ivanka was wrong. Just admit it and the media would not go after him. He needs to mature but at 72 it is too late. He is what he is and an increasing number of voters expect more from their President.

Name:	architect -	Reply
Subject:	GF
Date:	11/23/2018 9:03:06 AM

Now you have done it!  How dare you fling such an unkind insult at 8th graders?!

Name:	architect -	Reply
Subject:	Thank you Maj
Date:	11/23/2018 9:07:59 AM

For a serious response.  As I said in my question I rarely agree with your opinion and I certainly disagree with most of those expressed in your reply, but it is nice to have a poster with an opinion divergent from mine express and defend them in a reasonable way.

Name:	MAJ USA RET -	Reply
Subject:	concertina in the digital age
Date:	11/23/2018 9:35:25 AM

I continue to read that President Trump is a liar… yet, I know of no instance where he has lied.

I continue to read that President Trump is a racist… yet, his (employer) history proves otherwise.  His former employees do not agree with that description of him.  His policies… have proven otherwise.

I continue to read that President Trump is a sexist… yet, other than a bit of ribaldry when he was younger there is nothing there.  DO NOT bring up the Stormy Daniels debacle… there’s less to that than the low information voter realizes.  What!  Is that a stone in your hand?  Are YOU qualified to throw it?

I continue to read that President Trump is a homophobe… yet,   he has done nothing against LBGT people except for not allowing transgenders into the military (with good reason).  Transgenders in the military is an unsustainable practice, their dysphoria renders them unsuitable for the rigors of combat duty, they have a significantly higher suicide rate, a plurality of them have significant mental problems, and in their search for validation… they expose themselves to bullying and other aggressive behaviors.  See:  https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/AFSP-Williams-Suicide-Report-Final.pdf

With respect to Ivanka’s use of a private email address (I had one when I was in the military, yet somehow I managed to avoid using it for government business)… Ivanka does not (did not) have her own server in a closet in her home (or anywhere for that matter), she has not transmitted classified information in her emails, she has not erased any emails (that concept being stupid, as I suspect every email you or I have ever sent is stored somewhere in the cloud), and Ivanka’s use of personal email is not intentionally deceptive (as was Hilary’s).  I suspect this revelation is another game of “Gottcha!” School is still out on this one.

You are standing too close to the “tweet” issue.  It is very likely that is a tool in the “Art of the Deal.”  It certainly works with the MSM.  The tweets are like running up on a band of concertina wire as the press assaults our President.  They get tangled in it, it hurts, they pause to deal with the mess… and President has only wasted a few minutes of his time setting it up. If the press were to engage in classical journalism, the tweets would likely go away… or at least be more civil.

I still don’t like the tweets.  But, I am sure President Trump is smarter than me… richer… certainly more successful… and if I were recalled to active duty, he’d be my boss (as was Barack Obama).

- LMF Curmudgeon

Name:	GoneFishin -	Reply
Subject:	concertina in the digital age
Date:	11/23/2018 12:33:28 PM

MAJ..."I continue to read that President Trump is a liar… yet, I know of no instance where he has lied."

No need for me to read your post any further than this hilarious statement. You must be living in a cocoon.